Monthly Archives: October 2017

Reema Gowda is an ambitious student at Stoney Creek High School who has been participating in a research internship through the PTG lab since September, 2016. Reema’s interests in psychology and medicine have been simultaneously explored through her literature reviews regarding posttraumatic growth in individuals facing medical stressors. Recently, Reema used data from research that was conducted in the PTG lab to examine mean levels of PTG in high school students who indicated that medical trauma was the most stressful event they experienced in the past five years. The results revealed that individuals experiencing medical stressors reported the highest levels of growth in the Personal Strength domain, followed by the Appreciation of Life domain of PTG. The PTG lab looks forward to continuing to support Reema’s interests and seeing what she continues to accomplish.

Third year PhD student Whitney as well as former lab member Leah recently participated in a televised interview about posttraumatic growth. In the interview Whitney and Leah answer questions about trauma, stress, posttraumatic growth (PTG), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), resiliency, and more. Whitney begins by defining PTG and explains each of the five domains. Leah adds that it is not necessary to experience a very serious trauma in order to experience growth, and explains that many people experience growth from highly stressful, but not necessarily traumatic, life events. Current research being done in the PTG lab regarding PTG, resiliency, and PTSD is also discussed. Please follow the attached link to view the full interview. Managing Problems of Daily Living Posttraumatic Growth Interview

Dr. Taku, Kyle, and Lauren recently conducted a workshop with parents from Pontiac, Michigan about posttraumatic growth. The workshop began with a brief discussion about expectations for the workshop where the parents shared their desire to learn about the work being done in the PTG lab and how they can apply this work to their own lives. Kyle and Lauren then presented information about posttraumatic growth and provided examples while encouraging the parents to follow along by answering questions in a personal workbook which was provided to them. The parents had the opportunity to share their thoughts regarding  how they might be able to view stress in their lives as an opportunity for growth. This workshop was highly successful as the parents look forward to future psycho-educational programs to be conducted by the PTG lab.